


Drink

by Anonymous



Series: Eyesore [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drabble, F/M, Gen, outsider pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:22:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21638779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: There are many strangers in this city, but none quite like these.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke
Series: Eyesore [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1559842
Kudos: 21
Collections: Anonymous





	Drink

**Author's Note:**

> this is the beginning of a series of connected but non-chronological works the both of us started out about a year ago. we're going to post some of our backlog, so we hope it makes sense despite being non-linear. 
> 
> we refer to this universe as the "assassins au," but you can basically think about it as a world where the third shinobi world war started earlier and never ended and then everything else went horribly wrong. you'll find out more about what happened to sasuke and sakura specifically soon enough :) 
> 
> feel free to ask any questions you may have in the comments, there's certainly a lot of implied lore/worldbuilding happening here, as well as some very specific word choices

She regards them with careful discretion, wary of anyone who comes into her stall that she does not know. Her stall is not in a market in the center of town nor any of its adjacent districts; it sits in an area between the shopping district and the slums, and caters to regulars and neighborhood folks. These customers – they are obviously outsiders.

“Good morning,” says the pink-haired one, swinging their long, heavy-looking braid over their shoulder. Their hair is knotted and uneven, bangs that looked to be chopped as if by a kunai hanging into a pair of mismatched eyes, strands matted with a substance that Mai hopes is not blood. She doesn’t like to serve customers with blood on their hands.

There is something feral to her stare. One eye is green and the other is a startlingly deep brown. Not the kind of eye you get lost in, no – but the kind that could swallow you whole. As the pink-haired patron smiles, Mai considers this. It looks wrong on what is undoubtedly a pretty face – stretched over the jawbone and not curved right, as if someone told them how to smile but they had never learned it themselves.

Mai does not know their gender but they wear men’s clothing; hakama and kimono and a crested haori over it, although Mai does not recognize the crest of the clan. It doesn’t fit her quite right – too large, with rips and stains in several places. A katana sits at their hip, imposingly. Mai searches for the telltale hitai-ate that will label them as a shinobi and put some explanation behind the eerie aura that they have brought to the stall, but she does not find one.

Behind them, their brunette companion stays silent, a hand on the other’s waist in a manner that is not possessive like that of a romantic partner, but in a way that looks like it brings a comfort like that between a younger sibling wanting to know the older one is still there while moving through a crowd.

They have a thin, sharp face, with the remnants of eyeliner still smudged around their bloodshot eyes. A loose kimono hangs off of their lean frame, a polished nail tapping on the counter in time to a clock that isn’t ticking. Their hair is swept up on top of their head and it is secured by – Mai gulps. It is a hitai-ate like she suspected to find on the other one, but instead of identifying the village they’ve traveled from, she sees the village they’ve shed their loyalty to: a scratch blemishes the swirl of the Konoha leaf etched in the metal. Missing-nin.

“I don’t – want any trouble,” she gets out.

The pink-haired one rolls their eyes, and presses onward as if this is normal. Maybe it is.

“Nii-chan, I can’t take you anywhere. Take that off, you’re scaring the poor woman. Could we have a bottle of your dryest sake, please?”

The pink-haired one calls the brunette brother, but somehow, Mai knows that they are not siblings.

“My apologies,” murmurs the brunette, sliding the hitai-ate off in one quick motion and slinging it around their neck, letting their dark locks spill around it, hiding it from view. Mai shivers, and turns to grab the bottle.

Normally, she’d banter with her customers, make a joke about drinking so early in the morning, but she has the feeling – she  _ knows –  _ that either of these people (these  _ missing-nin, _ her brain helpfully supplies) could kill her with their bare hands.

The pink-haired one grins her feral grin again as Mai sets down the bottle and two glasses. At a second glance, Mai recognizes where she has seen such a grin before – it is one that belongs to a wolf, and with the wild way their hair frames their face, it is quite an apt comparison.

Mai moves away the moment the brunette places coins on the counter with a deft movement of their long, painted fingers.

She approaches a regular sat at the other end of the counter, grateful for the comfort that comes along with the presence of wise, old, knowledgeable Akari-san and her customary morning drink.

“They’re strange, aren’t they?” asks Mai when she sees the line of Akari-san’s sight.

The brunette is whispering in the pink-haired one’s ear, and when they pull away, the pink-haired one shoots their glass of sake and throws back their head and laughs and laughs and laughs. They wipe their mouth with the back of their hand and laugh and it does not sound right, coming from them. Like their smile, it’s as if someone told them how to laugh, but they did not know quite how to put it into practice themselves.

Akari-san grunts in reply.

“They don’t seem human,” Mai continues, shaking her head, pouring Akari-san’s drink, setting it down in front of her.

“Oh, they are human,” Akari-san says after her first long sip. She says it low and even, and Mai ducks her head as she listens. “Can’t you see? They have had their humanity stripped away from them. You should not begrudge them something as rare as laughter.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!


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